"It's great to see people start stepping up and attempting to fill some pretty big shoes," women's Nordic skier Stephanie Crocker '12 said. "This year is a bit different from last year just in terms of people who have left and trying to figure out who is racing but we've been getting better and better with every carnival. We were definitely upset to have our streak broken, but we're excited to work hard and improve."
Despite a lackluster team showing at the Colby Carnival, the Big Green had an off-week to prepare for its next carnival at UVM this weekend.
The Dartmouth team has utilized the week of practice, intensively working on various skills that team members would not have an opportunity to pursue on an ordinary carnival week, according to men's alpine skier Trevor Leafe '12.
"We used this off-week as a chance to step back and get refocused on what our goals are," Leafe said. "We were able to look at things which we haven't had time to work on in the past few weeks."
The team was able to train away from the Dartmouth Skiway, where it normally practices, to face steeper and more difficult conditions than it ordinarily would, Leafe said.
Sam Tarling '13 reiterated the importance of hard work in practice, especially during the week in between competitions.
"We're [improving on our weaknesses], but we need to keep training hard," he said. "I think that at this point in the season, it is always easy to slip into the routine of resting during the week and racing on the weekend. As long as we keep the intensity up in training, big results will come later in the season."
Crocker said the Big Green is excited for the chance to compete against UVM again this weekend. In its first contest against UVM this season at St. Lawrence University on Jan. 15 UVM ended Dartmouth's 15-carnival winning streak, which dated to 2008. The Catamounts beat the Big Green, 1,046 points to 821 points.
"It would be great to defeat them on their home course," Crocker said. "We would like nothing better than that. We are going to have to go out with all we've got if we want to take the winning spots and hopefully we'll be able to do that."
Leafe said that in addition to the team's push to win this weekend's carnival, the Big Green is also training with a long-term outlook.
"Obviously we want to compete hard and do well at every carnival, but I think everyone's goal is ultimately competing at [the NCAA Championships]," he said. "We want to be able to qualify three people in each category and we want them to go in with the first seed. I think this goal is attainable, but we still have a ways to go before we get there."
UVM has proven a formidable opponent for the team throughout this season. After suffering defeat by a wide margin in the first carnival of the season, Dartmouth worked to close the gap on UVM at the Colby College Carnival on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23, losing by a margin of 124 points.
"We knew coming into this season that it was going to be really tough," Leafe said. "We knew that UVM had put together a strong team and that we would have to perform well across the board to keep our streak alive. So, it wasn't a huge surprise to lose, but it was disappointing to see it end."
Despite finishing second, Dartmouth has had a number of strong performances in its last two carnivals. In the Colby Carnival, the Big Green took first in both the men's and women's 3x5 kilometer relays. On the men's side, Eric Packer '12, Nils Koons '11 and Tarling finished 10 seconds ahead of the nearest completion, winning the race with a time of 51:34.4. The women's team comprised of Crocker, Erika Flowers '12 and Rose Brennan '11 won by 0.9 seconds, edging out the University of New Hampshire with a time of 1:08:23.6.
Individually, the Big Green had several top-10 finishes. Koons finished first in the men's 10-kilometer classic, with a time of 31:27.6. On the women's side, Crocker completed the same event in 40:23.3, placing third. Both Leafe and Courtney Hammond '11 placed fourth in their giant slalom races, with times of 2:06.11 and 2:09.52, respectively.
"I think as a whole, we've had some really strong results, but we also have room for improvement," Leafe said. "Seeing our streak end at the first carnival really fueled the fire and we are all looking to step up from here on out."
Dartmouth will travel to Stowe, Vt., for the UVM Carnival on Friday and Saturday.
